I have an "empty force" story. There was this infantile bully type co-worker once who liked to get in people's (male and female) faces and try to push their buttons. He had a few inches and a few pounds on me. He started his little monkey dance with me one time and I grabbed a spray bottle of some toxic cleaning solution, moved towards him while raising the nozzle towards his eyes. I tightened my forearm muscles and the finger on the trigger while staring in his eyes and made a hissing spraying noise with my mouth. He jerked his head back and backed up, but his feet couldn't keep up with his center of gravity. With each step back, his feet went higher in the air and his arms shot out to the side. Right at the point where he was going over backward, he fell into some people behind him. Probably saved him from cracking his head on the ground. Should have seen the look on his face.

These charlatans need to be shut down. Self-defense isn't a laughing matter; they can get people killed.

If they think they can do their stuff, they have a permanent invitation to one of our camps. Just let us know in advance and we'll set up another experiment. Just tell them that we will have cameras, and the results will be published.

Stryke wrote:[I'd] go so far as to say it happens a little in every group.

This is true.

Good students often try hard to please the teacher. And people want to believe in something special... A secret supplement that will make them stronger, a secret technique, a special energy (chi, the force...) which masters develop after years of being off alone contemplating their navels...

At the end of the day, there's a little bit of truth to some of the wacko. I first wanted to believe in chi. After a doctorate in systems physiology and biomedical engineering, I tossed it from my mindset. Then when I learned about core strength and sequential summation of motion, I discovered that "it" was there all along, but totally misunderstood as it hid in plain sight.

The last few decades being a scientist and working with real data in randomized controlled trials has shaped my beliefs a lot. And it hasn't necessarily brought me to being a curmudgeon. Far from it. Some of the greatest discoveries are there waiting to be found. It's those unexpected ones that are the most fun to stumble over.